RAREBREED SHOWCASE: Animantarx

Animantarx, latin for “living fortress” or “animated citadel” were ankylosaurians aptly named. A rare find, it had been dug up from radioactive sediments from the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah; the first and only one of its kind.

An early ankylosaur, it was related to nodosaurs such as sauropelta and gastonia, it lacked the famous ankylosaurian tail club but makes up for it with numerous defensive scutes and spikes. Three meters in length it may have been diminutive compared to tarchia and ankylosaurus (6-8 meters and several tons) but nodosaurs evolved more gracile and swift. Of ankylosaurs, there were several varieties: giant clubbed tanks and the spiny pangolin-like nodosaur or polacanths; all were interesting glimpses on body armor evolved by the world’s most heavily defensed saurians.